


The Space Between

by jedia_lo21



Category: The Martian (2015), Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Angst, Botany, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mars, Science Fiction, Space Husbands, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 05:02:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17995352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedia_lo21/pseuds/jedia_lo21
Summary: Victor Nikiforov is the youngest commander of one of the ARES missions to Mars. Together with his rag tag astronaut crew and his beautiful botanist husband, Yuuri, they manage to land on Mars to begin collecting samples.But a severe dust storm hits that separates Victor and Yuuri from the rest of the ARES crew who take off and leave the couple behind.With meager and dwindling supplies, Victor and Yuuri must use the power of love and a combination of wits and spirit to survive on the hostile planet.





	The Space Between

**Author's Note:**

> I sincerely apologize for this. I have no idea where this even came from.

MAY 26, 2026

**-We’re One Small Step Closer to Colonizing Mars**

**-NASA has Completed Construction on ‘The Hab’!**

**-Exclusive Pics of Real Astronauts Testing Out the Deep Space HAB-itat!**

 

NOVEMBER 19, 2026

**-Viktor Nikiforov is Chosen at 20 to Lead the ARES III to Mars**

**-The Youngest Commander of any NASA Mission Will Lead ARES III in 2035!**

**-Juicy Spaceman is Going to Mars!!!**

 

JUNE 6, 2029

**-The crew of ARES I lands on the Red Planet. One Giant Leap For Mankind**

**-First Footage of ARES I Crew Walking on Mars**

**-Matt McCoy Trips Over a Rock on Mars LOL**

 

MARCH 23, 2031

**-NASA Given Congressional Approval to go to Mars With ARES III**

 

APRIL 11, 2032

**-NASA Begins Selecting the Crew for ARES III**

**-Does Commander Nikiforov Have the Hots for One of the ARES III Mission Candidates? We Have Pics,** **_You_ ** **Decide!**

 

MAY 4, 2032

**-The ARES III Crew is Official!**

**-Viktor Nikiforov Spotted at Fancy Restaurant With Fellow Astronaut Katsuki Yuuri!**

 

SEPTEMBER 1, 2032

**-Training begins for the Crew of the ARES III**

**-Think You’ve  Got What It Takes to Go to Mars? How to Get Ripped Like Astronaut Commander Viktor Nikiforov**

 

DECEMBER 25, 2032

**-Nikiforov and Katsuki Spotted Walking Together in Barcelona Christmas Market**

**-Inside Peek at ARES III Crew Dinner at Cafe in Barcelona**

**-Katsuki and Nikiforov spotted in Barcelona! Are those matching rings?!?!?!?!**

 

FEBRUARY 27, 2033

**-IT’S OFFICIAL! ARES III Commander Viktor Nikiforov Confirms Engagement With Fellow Astronaut Katsuki Yuuri!!!!**

**-Exclusive Nikiforov-Katsuki Engagement Photos!**

**-Wedding Bells All Over Earth! Nikiforov-Katsuki Getting Married In the Winter**

 

APRIL 29, 2033

**-Yuuri Katsuki (soon to be Nikiforov) Picks Flowers for the Wedding**

**-Yuuri’s Top 10 Botanist Tips for the Perfect Wedding Flowers**

 

SEPTEMBER 16, 2033

**-NASA Begins Shipping First of Provisions to Mars**

 

DECEMBER 14, 2033

**-Viktor and Yuuri Nikiforov’s Official Wedding Photos Were Just Released**

**-The Wedding of the Century! The Nikiforovs Are Gorgeous!**

 

MARCH 23, 2034

**-Our Darling Nikiforovs Have Adopted! Welcome to Earth, Makkachin!**

 

DECEMBER 29, 2034

**-The Countdown Begins! 6 Months Until Take-Off!**

 

JUNE 29, 2035

**-Liftoff! Exclusive Pics of the ARES III Crew Boarding the Shuttle to the Hermes**

 

JULY 7, 2035

**-ARES III Leaving Earth’s Orbit and Heading to Mars On a 4 Month Journey**

 

✴ ✴ ✴

 

**ACIDALIA PLANITIA**

**NASA- ARES III- LANDING SITE**

**MISSION DAY: SOL 18**

 

The landscape of Mars was about as interesting as the mountain regions of Colorado or the basins of Utah. The sight was gorgeous to see overhead on the landing site, with large mesas casting shadows on the desert plains below, the sun spreading golden rays out upon a landscape that shone brilliantly red and butter yellow.

There just wasn’t anything _living_ to give the comfort that this could’ve been Earth. There was no brown and blue river snaking its way through the red canyons. There weren’t patches of green brush and cacti sprouting along the rock crags to house small wildlife. There was just _rock_ and _dirt_.

Dead all around. That was the most unnerving aspect of everything.

When most people imagined the planets of outer space, their minds fabricated images of floating crystals in glowing caves, great stormy oceans millions of miles deep stretching around the entire sphere of a planet, or perhaps a desolate rocky landscape made up entirely of those little magnetic hematite stones that children receive in gift bags at birthday parties or NASA souvenir shops.

They certainly didn’t imagine boring old mountains. Everyone knows what mountain ranges look like. They’re the photoshopped, highly-saturated scenes in brochures. The plain views that one would see driving along Route highways with the sunset peeking over the ridges of rock and crag. People didn’t imagine Mars to be anything but extraterrestrial and a possible habitat for alien life. But the planet was dead and Viktor didn’t imagine that any interstellar life would be changing that anytime soon.

His mission here was simple. Collect rock data to be analyzed by scientists on Earth. Just enough samples to determine whether Mars was an occupational probability or not. Occupational, at least, for rich people on Earth to build their interstellar mansions here. On a landscape as dismal and boring as _Mars_.

There would still be years and years left for scientists to even think about colonizing the planet, or drilling and mining for metals, or seeing whether the carbon dioxide-infused polar ice cap was worth trying to unfreeze for liquid water. And then worth the expense of being turned into drinkable H₂O.

The thing was, the atmosphere was too thin for people to be comfortable spending the rest of their days in heavy life support suits and massive oxygen tanks. Temperatures were cold on the planet, but they grew unbearably hot in the thermal regulated suits, especially when paired with the constant bending to study and collect samples. Nevermind that Viktor’s crew members’ every way of life was also centered on the most boring aspect of Mars- its dirt.

Dirt was everywhere. In the air they breathed; tracking its way into the living dome- the Hab- where the sleeping and living quarters were; in boots, in socks, in clothes, in suits, in gloves; hair, eyes, mouth. In every breath and exhale. Dirt dirt dirt.

Viktor would be happy to move back to Russia, back to St. Petersburg so he could remember how dismal it was to wake up every day and see the same grey sky in all the seasons. The leached color would be a better sight than all this brown and red. He was sick of seeing brown and red.

Of course, everyday was always worth it, every grain of sand and dirt was worth dealing with when he saw the sparkling light in his husband’s eyes when they alighted upon all the little baggies of soil that would be sent back to Earth with them. No matter that all the crumbling clay was the same orange or brown color, his beautiful botanist husband was happiest in his element, and on Mars, his element happened to be in dirt.

Viktor dusted his gloves off, scowling at the sight of the white fabric smudged with orange clay. He scanned the horizon, counting each member of his team to make sure that everyone was where they were supposed to be. Chris was pretending to be intrigued by a patch of pebbles and clay. Yurio was slumped against one of the legs of the MAV, cloaked away from the sun in shadows made by the towering vehicle. Phichit and Otabek were in the Hab.

And Yuuri. His breathtaking botanist husband was sitting in the dirt about a hundred yards away, hands reverently scooping handfuls of the stuff to sift between his gloved fingers. Viktor was too far away to see the burgundy brown eyes of his lover, but he imagined that they were sparkling with barely-concealed joy.

Testing the samples under the microscope and in the labs back home would surely be the source of all conversation between them in the months it would take to reach Earth’s surface, the months it would take to analyze the samples, and probably months afterward, even after all the magic of being in space would fade away with the daily routines of life.

But Viktor would never fault or be annoyed with his husband when he could see the delight it caused him. Yuuri’s job on this mission had been met with eye rolls from most (if not all) of the other members on the team. Though they had all known each other back in Russia- or Detroit in Phichit’s case- there was certainly a lot of ribbing from the other team members toward Yuuri, whose happiness in life was summed up in just a few general things: Katsudon, Botany, Makkachin, and Viktor.

But again, Viktor’s husband was too adorable to constitute irritation at. It was enough to see the sparkle in those brown eyes, the way Yuuri’s teeth bit his lower lip in concentration, his shoulder wiggles he did when looking at dirt samples under the microscope. All the little movements, all the little things that made Yuuri _Yuuri_.

_“How’s it looking over there, Katsuki?”_ Phichit’s amused voice filtered through the comm channel connected to each of the team members. He was currently in the Hab monitoring the plains for any unusual activity. As the mission sysop, he was attached to his patch of computers almost 24/7, playing Galaga on a Namco Ms Pacman 5-in-one Plug N Play, and messing with the coordinate controls in the system database that NASA was always getting on to him about.

Viktor watched with delight as Yuuri froze, hands still buried in a spot of sand marked with one of their terrain flags. Adorable.

_“Well, you’ll be happy to hear that Terrain Grids 14-28 contain particles that are predominantly coarse, but in 29, much finer and more ideal for chem analysis,”_ Yuuri murmured in response. The soft, melodic voice was muffled slightly over the communication channel, but the sound of it- like music in Viktor’s ears- was enough to make him shiver. Not to mention how hot he was when he spoke scientifically.

_“Wow. Did everyone here that? Yuuri just discovered dirt. Should we alert the media?”_ Phichit was always teasing Viktor’s husband. Yuuri and Phichit had been friends long before being assigned on the Ares team. They had both gone to MIT on full-ride scholarships, graduating 2 years early from high school, and were roommates in their first year at university, Phichit studying Maths and Computer Science, and Yuuri studying Environmental Engineering and Plant Biology. The two became inseparable, and after schooling, applied to NASA’s Astronaut Candidate Program.

_“Viktooor, I’m getting teased,”_ Yuuri’s pouting moan sounded over the channel. With his Japanese accent more pronounced, the ‘V’ in Viktor’s name resembled a ‘B’. The captain gave a full-body shiver of delight at the sound. His beautiful, cute husband was too much to handle.

_“Would you guys shut the fuck up? I don’t think I can stand 30 more days on this shit planet with all of you annoying assholes,”_ Yurio snapped.

_“Yura,”_ A gruffer voice warned, one calm and soft, nearly indiscernible over the comm link. The Kazakh chemist on the mission- Otabek Altin. And the only one who could calm Yurio down.

_“Hmph,”_ the blonde crossed his arms over his chest and kicked a cloud of dirt up with his boot. The move quite resembled those made by Yakov Feltsman, the Director of all the Mars missions at NASA. The old man was always voicing his displeasure, at Viktor especially, and usually it was in the form of a grunt.

_“Alright, alright. Enough, everyone. Phichit, stop teasing my Yuuri. Yurio, show some respect to your superiors on this mission, or I’ll tell Yakov and he’ll make sure that it’s_ years _before you command your own mission,”_ Viktor smiled in the direction of the young astronaut who stomped his foot hard in the dirt and stormed off in the direction of the Hab.

Viktor replaced the terrain flag in the dirt that he had been inspecting and started the long trek toward Yuuri. His husband was paying no mind to his surroundings, focused entirely on the orange clay below them. The Russian smiled and wrapped his arms around his lover, mourning the bulky suits that got in the way of real intimacy.

Yuuri froze in surprise, but his hands rested immediately on Viktor’s arms around him, and he snuggled back against the Russian’s chest, to the commander’s delight.

_“Hey, now, let’s not get too heated out here,”_ Chris laughed over the comm channel.

Viktor rolled his eyes, “Can I not hug my beautiful husband and tell him how much I love him?”

Yuuri froze in his arms and then grinned sheepishly as Yurio, Phichit, and Chris all groaned in unison over the communication channel.

_“You tell him everyday. We get it. You’re enamoured with Piggy and he’s obsessed with you too,”_ Yurio snarled.

_“He’s not wrong,”_ Phichit laughed.

_“Why me?”_ Yuuri whispered, burying his face in his hands. Viktor was 99% sure that his husband’s face was as red as a tomato right now. The commander squeezed his arms tighter, offering the comfort of his hugs to his embarrassed lover.

“Oh, _Solnyshko_ , I love you more every day,” Viktor laughed.

Yurio groaned once more and murmured expletives in Russian, Kazakh, and English over the channel.

_“I’m happy turn the radios off from here, Commander. Just say the word,”_ Phichit grinned on the other line.

_“Hey, fuck that. Yakov said that constant communication is the hallmark of-”_

“Shut him off,” Viktor smiled.

There was a moment of blessed silence as Yura’s communication channel cut off from the team’s line. He was probably cussing Viktor out in the Hab now, but at least the rest of the team didn’t have to hear it.

_“Now that the kitten is offline, how many samples do we need again, Commander?”_ Chris grinned sweetly.

“Seven. One hundred grams each,” Viktor squeezed Yuuri’s fingers laced with his own and then bent down to the marked area of soil that Yuuri had been working on. Viktor peered into his husband’s helmet and caught sight of Yuuri biting uneasily at his plump lower lip. God, Viktor wanted to kiss him so bad.

_“Hey, I hate to break up this wonderful team-building exercise, but I’ve just got a mission update. Commander, you should come inside. You’re gonna want to see this,”_ Phichit suddenly murmured over the comm channel, voice laced with worry.

“What is it?”

_“A storm warning.”_

Yuuri’s brown eyes flicked to him, dark with unease. Viktor reached over to squeeze his hand. NASA always stressed the importance of keeping the team updated on any and all terrain or atmospheric changes happening on Mars. Most of them were not worth the worry, just something to keep track of.

This was likely one of those changes. Probably a minor dust storm. More of a nuisance than anything else. They’d probably have to abandon sample collecting today, tarp the solar panels and machines to prevent dust getting into the complex framework and messing things up.

“Yes, I saw that in this morning’s briefing,” Viktor assured. “But we’ll be inside before it hits.”

Yuuri relaxed next to him, fingers going limp with relief.

_“Yeah, well, they upgraded their estimate. The storm’s gonna be a lot worse.”_

His husband’s head shot up to peer into the distance beyond. To the south, the small dust storm that had been gathering all morning was roiling over the plains. According to this morning’s estimate, that storm should still be gathering and would arrive at the landing site in 4 hours at the most. If this storm was bigger and faster than planned…

Yuuri squeezed his fingers and gave a small, nearly imperceptible nod.

The lives of the crew were more important than a day of collecting soil. There was always tomorrow.

Viktor sighed, helped his Yuuri to stand, and brushed the dirt of their pants. Together, the couple began the trek toward the Hab.

 

***

 

“Twelve hundred kilometers in diameter bearing 24.41 degrees,” Viktor squinted at the monitor, reading the system update on Phichit’s communications laptop. The HabLocal terrain map was open and the update box below flashed in red.

“That’s tracking right towards us,” Yuuri said, crossing his arms over his chest. The other members of the crew began to filter in closer to the monitor, silent and attentive at the tension that was now filling the Hab. Six pairs of eyes anxiously scanned the report over and over and over again, as if each time would generate different results.

“Based on current escalation,” Viktor continued, “there’s an estimated force of... _8600 Newtons_? Are we reading this correctly?”

“What’s the abort force?” Yuuri murmured next to him.

“7500.” Otabek’s voice was grim.

“Anything more than that and the MAV could tip. _Viktor_ ,” Yuuri gripped his arm. “This isn’t something we’re prepared enough to deal with. As vital is this mission is...we might have to scrub.”

Viktor winced. The dreaded word. _Scrub_. It felt like giving up. ‘Scrub’ meant mission failure. One simple dust storm would send them back into space where NASA would either give them the go-ahead to return in a few weeks, or give up the entire mission and return home to Earth where they would be treated forever as failures.

_You couldn’t last a full week on Mars_ , his mind sneered at him. _Everything you worked for. Gone. Every time Yakov stood up for you in Director meetings, convincing every important sponsor and politician that 20-year-old Viktor Nikiforov, media hottie, was fit to lead a mission to mars. You are nothing more than a failure._

“Vitya,” Yuuri pleaded and cupped his cheeks with warm hands. Soft fingers stroked his cheekbones and traced his eyebrows, gentle and loving. “This is out of our control. No one is going to blame you for a dust storm on Mars. We’ve only just started this mission. Getting sent back to Earth at this point will be a waste of resources. Let’s get up into gravitational orbit, wait this out, and then come back with clear heads and stronger purpose. We aren’t over yet.”

Viktor nodded and offered his husband a small smile when Yuuri leaned up on his toes to kiss his forehead. He squeezed his lover to him, revelling for a  moment in the warmth their bodies made, before letting go and turning to the rest of his crew. They straightened up expectantly.

 “Begin abort procedure,” Viktor murmured calmly.

 

***

 

Otabek left to prep the MAV for launch as the rest of the crew finished suiting up to crowd into AIRLOCK 1.

“Talk to me, Otabek,” Viktor said over the comm link. “How long before takeoff?”

_“12 minutes.”_

The alarms in the airlock flashed warningly as Viktor closed the door.

“Visibility is almost zero. If anyone gets lost, hone in on my suit’s telemetry,” He warned and entered in the access code to begin the depressurization process. The numbers on the pad ticked down quickly. _100...72...49...23...8...2...0_

_“Ready,”_ Yuuri called from the other side of the airlock.

Viktor shoved the latch down and opened the airlock door.

The crew was immediately slammed backward as wind and clumps of rock and dirt rushed into the airlock chamber at high speed and swept Viktor off his feet.. The lights in the airlock flickered and puttered out and the night lights in Viktor’s suit flashed on.

_“Viktor!”_ Yuuri cried over the comm channel. _“Vitya, are you alright?”_      

“I’m ok!” Viktor replied, gritting his teeth as dirt rained down on his helmet. The wind howled so loudly outside that it was hard to hear the communications line even though the headset was built into his helmet.

Hands immediately reached down to help him up. Viktor couldn’t tell whose hands they belonged to. The storm outside raged like a tornado. Rock and dirt zigzagged through the air, completely blocking out the bright red sky that had up above not an hour before. All the gathering dust had plunged the landing site into darkness blacker than any Earth night.

Viktor struggled to lift his feet and place them back into the ground as the wind tugged him left and right. He braced his muscles and dug his boots hard into the earth to prevent being swept away.

The lights in his helmet did little to nothing to break apart the darkness around them. Viktor could barely see his gloved hands in front of him. There were only flashing shadows as clumps of dirt and rock slammed through the air.

_“The airlock is shut,”_ Yuuri breathed heavily over the comm line. Viktor had to physically hold himself back from turning around to get a glimpse of his husband who had stayed behind in the line to close the airlock door. If he turned, the wind would carry him away.

A twinge of unease curled in his belly.

He wanted his husband right next to him. To ensure that his Yuuri was safe where Viktor could see him.

As the crew struggled closer to the MAV, Viktor spotted a flashing light in the distance. The MAV’s rotator lights were on and sending beams of light radiating outward like a lighthouse warning off ships in a storm.

_“Commander, we’re at 10 degrees and the MAV is going to tip at 12.3,”_ Otabek warned over the communication line.

Viktor cursed under his breath and sped up, trusting in his crew to keep up with him.

_"_ Hey!” Phichit shouted over the line. _“We might be able to keep the MAV from tipping!”_

It was difficult to hear the sysop over the shrieking wind and the pelting rocks. Viktor risked a look backward...and breathed a sigh of relief. Chris, Yurio, and Phichit were right behind him, and as the sysop finished speaking, Yuuri entered in the circle of Viktor’s light with the rest of the crew.

“How?” Viktor replied, squinting through the whirling dust.

The light from the MAV was brighter now that they were closer to the ship. It was much easier to see ahead. The tornado of dust looked less like an ominous shadow, and more like individual rocks and dirt being swept around with the wind…

_“Use the cables from the comms mast as guy-lines! Anchor it with the Rover’s!”_

A sudden squeal pierced the air as something whizzed by them. Something huge and round and shaped vaguely like a satellite…

“WATCH OUT!” Viktor shouted, ducking as the piece of equipment whirled over his head.

There was a scream on the other end of the line and Viktor’s heart dropped in his chest.

He raised his head and agony curled in his belly, ripped out of his throat in a pained cry as he watched the satellite dish slam into Yuuri and send his husband flying back into the darkness.

“YUURI,” He screamed and lunged for the spot his husband had disappeared from, scanning the distance desperately for any sight of his lover. But his light was too weak to cut more than 15 feet into the darkness and whirling dust.

Yuuri was gone.

“Yuuri! Yuuri, report!” He called over the comm line.

_“Before we lost telemetry his decompression alarm went off,”_ Phichit called. _“I don’t know where he is.”_

_“I didn’t see him!”_

_“The MAV reported a suit breach detection. We need to find him fast!”_

“What are the vitals on his suit,” Viktor boomed over the screams of the rest of the crew.

_“Negative, there’s a complete loss of signal on Katsuki.”_

_“Beka! How long can Katsudon survive decompression_ ,” Yura called out desperately.

_“Less than a minute.”_ The reply was ominous. Viktor’s chest tightened, his breaths tore from his lungs, too quick to circulate oxygen through his body. His body burned from it. His eyes watered. His teeth clenched. Everything inside him was screaming. Screaming. Screaming.

_Yuuri. Please_.

Viktor’s vision blurred, and he tilted unsteadily in the hammering storm.

_Com...der? C...ander? What...do? What do we do?_

Fear laced the voices of all his crew members. Viktor wanted to clap his hands over his ears and drown them out. He wanted to sink to the dirt and let the dust storm close over his body and bury him forever in clay. He wanted...he wanted...

_We aren’t over yet_ , Yuuri’s voice filtered through his mind. Memories of soft fingers stroking his face reassuringly, of brown eyes large and fearful but determined, peering up at him. Always reassuring.

Yuuri.

_“Commander! What do we do?”_ Chris’s voice rang out over the howling wind. Everything was flooding back now. Viktor blinked dumbly for a second, and when he opened his mouth to respond, the calm orders that escaped surprised him.

“Line up. Walk west. He may be prone. We don’t want to step over him.”

_“Commander, we’re at 10.5 degrees. Tilting to 11 with all the gusts of wind,”_ Otabek called out, voice grim.

“Copy that,” Viktor answered, but he gave little heed to the update. His mind was focused on finding Yuuri. “Everyone, hone in on Yuuri’s suit. Get to airlock, get in, prep for launch.”

_“What about you?”_ Yura protested.

“I’m going to search a little longer. Get moving! Go!”

Viktor turned his attention back on the whirling dust, sweeping his helmet lights back and forth across the ground. With every sweep, he prayed that he would find his husband. That he could scoop him up into his arms and carry him safely back to MAV so they could take off, enter gravitational orbit, and wait out NASA’s orders. He didn’t care now if they got sent back to Earth. He would take the mission failure over the loss of his Yuuri any day.

_“The MAV’s at 11.6 degrees. One good gust and we’re tipping,”_ Otabek warned.

“If it tips, you launch.”

_“You really think we’re going to leave you behind?”_ Chris whispered.

“That’s an order, Altin.”

Viktor gritted his teeth as he moved against the raging storm. His heels sank deep into the sand and felt like conderblacks as he raised them up to take slow and painful steps back in the direction of the Hab.

“Otabek, what about the proximity radar? Could that detect Yuuri’s suit?” Viktor called desperately.

_“It’s made to see the Hermes from orbit, not a piece of metal from a single suit.”_

“Give it a try.”

_“Viktor, stop! What the fuck are you thinking?! You_ know _the infrared can’t get through a sandstorm. Just give up! Katsudon’s gone,”_ Yura sobbed angrily over the communication line.

_“Viktor, we’ve got negative contact on the proximity radar. I can barely see the Hab,”_ Otabek’s voice was more sorrowful than Viktor had ever heard before.

_“Commander, I know you don’t want to hear this but Yuuri is gone. He’s...he’s dead. It’s too late. With depressurization? God, he had probably half a minute at the most,”_ Chris’s voice was laced with regret.

Viktor screamed into the darkness. Out of frustration and pain. The agony was lancing up his spine and shattering in his chest. Everything felt hollow, narrowed to a single point in the distance.

_Yuuri is gone. Yuuri is dead. He had half a minute at most…_

Viktor wailed and slammed his hands against the sides of his helmet. It blocked the way to his ears. He wanted to stop it all. Stop all the noise. Maybe if he did that, he could still pretend that everything was okay. He could still pretend that _Yuuri_ was okay.

_“Hey, what the fuck is wrong with you,”_ Phichit snapped.

His voice sounded far away. Muffled.

_“My friend just died. I don’t want my commander to die too,”_ Chris muttered hotly back.

And there was that word again. The word that speared his heart, set his body on mind-wrenching fire. That pierced his very soul to the core, pinned it down like a butterfly to a mounting board, watched him writhe and scrawl coldly and impassively…’died’.

_“Commander, you need to get back to the ship NOW,”_ Otabek shouted. _“We’re at 13 degrees. If we pass balance we’ll never rock back.”_

_“Commander!”_

_"Viktor, please!”_

“Don’t,” Viktor whispered under his breath, too soft for anyone over the comm channel to hear. “Don’t.” He sank to his knees in the dirt. The wind ripped at his suit roughly. The dust flying about cloaked his vision in shadow. He couldn’t see, not even with his helmet’s lights.

Viktor stretched out his fingers toward the darkness ahead. The darkness Yuuri had disappeared into.

_Yuuri._

_I’m coming._

_Stay close to me_.

_Stay._

" _Commander,”_ Otabek whispered quietly. _“Commander, I’m following orders. We’re launching.”_

Viktor’s vision blackened at the edges. Or maybe his helmet’s lights were flickering. Either way it was fine. At least now he didn’t have to see the ominous blackness ahead, see Yuuri’s body flying into it, see his husband torn away from his grasp.

_Stay close to me, always._

_Yuuri_.

Viktor closed his eyes and surrendered to the darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> PSA: Dust storms on Mars aren't actually as severe as the movie makes them out to be. In fact, because the atmosphere on the planet is so thin, a "severe" storm generates enough power to lift strands of your hair off your head. Wow. Such power. In the case of drama, though, the storm in the movie and this fic is crazy powerful.
> 
> So I just happened to find The Martian playing on tv the other day, and while I've seen the movie about a million times, something about this time really got my gears going. "This will be a great idea, because what if YUURI AND VICTOR were trapped on Mars and had to survive together...and now we're getting the lap top out."
> 
> Thus, whatever this is was born.
> 
> Hope you like it XD I might end up finishing it if that's the case. This seems fun...
> 
> Also, if I do end up finishing it, this story will be as close to fact as I can possibly get it. Because let's face it, if author Andy Weir and the writers of the movie script were able to get near-perfect science, then dammit I want in on that too!


End file.
